The height of Arthurs Seat is given in most maps and literature incorrectly as 1,031 feet. It is in fact 1,000 feet (305 metres). On a clear day some 28,000 square kilometres of Victoria can be seen from the summit.

The grand panorama begins to unfold in the west-south-west where Cape Otway juts into Bass Strait and the chain of the Otway Ranges climbs from sea level to 686 metres. In the middle distance the thin finger of the western end of Mornington Peninsula points to the Rip, the turbulent channel between Point Nepean and Point Lonsdale on the Bellarine Peninsula.

Looking At The View

The triple peaks of the You Yangs pierce the horizon in the north west culminating in Flinders Peak (352 metres), and the great ridge of Mt Macedon (1,011 metres) dominates the low country in north-north-west. 60 kilometres due north, right across the bay, looms the jagged skyline of Melbourne's skyscrapers.

Beyond the perfect parabola of Dromana Bay the needle sharp Schnapper Point marks the spot where Captain Mathew Flinders landed his rowboat on 29th April 1802 during his hasty survey of Port Phillip Bay. Further still, the Dandenongs (633 metres) rise steeply in front of the hazy contour of the Great Dividing Range reaching 1,243 metres on the summit of Mt Donna Buang. The snows of the Baw Baw Plateau (1,563 metres) glisten in winter on the north east horizon. French and Phillip Islands swim in the waters of Westernport Bay in the east, and the blue infinity of Bass Strait in the south completes the circle.